The new Mars rover, Curiosity, successfully landed on the planet Mars at 10:31pm PDT! Join the Exploratorium crew for a very special online-only live webcast as we watched the final descent of the rover to Mars. Along with our own expert scientists, we share footage from NASA TV of the control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mission on Mars begins now!

The time has come! The Curiosity rover will be landing on the planet Mars on August 5, 2012. The Exploratorium crew did a special live webcast from the museum floor at our evening program for adults, called After Dark. Join us as we get the lowdown on the Mars mission!

Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) explain how they simulate martian conditions and conduct tests with model rovers to prepare the Curiosity rover for its journey to Mars and its work on the red planet.

A glimpse of the full-scale model of the Mars rover, Curiosity. On display at the Exploratorium from August 1st to September 16, 2012. This model is on loan from JPL, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and there are only two on loan in the United States!

In this video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we examine the notion of curiosity. Curiosity is a big part of what it means to be human. It's also the name of NASA's next Mars rover. This 60-second video shows how one type of curiosity can inspire another.

In this video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we look at landing on Mars. Landing a spacecraft on Mars is one of the trickiest things we do. This 60-second video explains how it’s done, and the three landing systems we use at the Red Planet.

Webcasts made possible through the generosity of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Jim Clark Endowment for Internet Education, the McBean Family Foundation.

Bandwidth and infrastructure support for connectivity to the California Research and Education Network and to other Internet2-connected networks provided by the Corporation for Educational Networks Initiatives in California (CENIC).